[Leica] Flickr CEO asks for help

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

Flickr is a great thing. After reading this email, I joined Flickr Pro.



On 2019-12-20 10:48 am, scleroplex via LUG wrote:
> Dear Flickr Pros,
> 
> First, and above all else: thank you. Thank you for being a part of
> our community. Thank you for caring about Flickr. Thank you for
> supporting Flickr. Thank you for being a Flickr Pro.
> 
> Two years ago, Flickr was losing tens of millions of dollars a year.
> Our company, SmugMug, stepped in to rescue it from being shut down and
> to save tens of billions of your precious photos from being erased.
> 
> Why? We?ve spent 17 years lovingly building our company into a
> thriving, family-owned and -operated business that cares deeply about
> photographers. SmugMug has always been the place for photographers to
> showcase their photography, and we?ve long admired how Flickr has been
> the community where they connect with each other. We couldn?t stand by
> and watch Flickr vanish.
> 
> So we took a big risk, stepped in, and saved Flickr. Together, we
> created the world?s largest photographer-focused community: a place
> where photographers can stand out and fit in.
> 
> And yet, Flickr?the world?s most-beloved, money-losing business?still
> needs your help.
> 
> We?ve been hard at work improving Flickr. We hired an excellent, large
> staff of Support Heroes who now deliver support with an average
> customer satisfaction rating of above 90%. We got rid of Yahoo?s
> login. We moved the platform and every photo to Amazon Web Services
> (AWS), the industry leader in cloud computing, and modernized its
> technology along the way. As a result, pages are already 20% faster
> and photos load 30% more quickly. Platform outages, including Pandas,
> are way down. Flickr continues to get faster and more stable, and
> important new features are being built once again.
> 
> Our work is never done, but we?ve made tremendous progress.
> 
> Flickr still needs your help. It?s still losing money. You, and
> hundreds of thousands of loyal Flickr members stepped up and joined
> Flickr Pro, for which we are eternally grateful. It?s losing a lot
> less money than it was. But it?s not yet making enough.
> 
> We need more Flickr Pro members if we want to keep the Flickr dream
> alive, and we need your help to share the story of Flickr.
> 
> We didn?t buy Flickr because we thought it was a cash cow. Unlike
> platforms like Facebook, we also didn?t buy it to invade your privacy
> and sell your data. We bought it because we love photographers, we
> love photography, and we believe Flickr deserves not only to live on
> but thrive. We think the world agrees; and we think the Flickr
> community does, too. But we cannot continue to operate it at a loss as
> we?ve been doing.
> 
> Flickr is the world?s largest photographer-focused community. It?s the
> world?s best way to find great photography and connect with amazing
> photographers. Flickr hosts some of the world?s most iconic, most
> priceless photos, freely available to the entire world. This community
> is home to more than 100 million accounts and tens of billions of
> photos. It serves billions of photos every single day. It?s huge. It?s
> a priceless treasure for the whole world. And it costs money to
> operate. Lots of money.
> 
> As you know, Flickr is the best value in photo sharing anywhere in the
> world. Flickr Pro members get ad-free browsing for themselves and
> their visitors, advanced stats, unlimited full-quality storage for all
> their photos, plus premium features and access to the world?s largest
> photographer-focused community.
> 
> Please, help us spread the word. Help us make Flickr thrive. Help us
> ensure Flickr has a bright future. Every Flickr Pro subscription goes
> directly to keeping Flickr alive and creating great new experiences
> for photographers like you. We are building lots of great things for
> the Flickr community, but we need your help. We can do this together.
> 
> We?re launching our end-of-year Pro subscription campaign on Thursday,
> December 26, but I want to give you a coupon code to share with
> friends, family, or anyone who shares your love of photography and
> community so they can enjoy the same 25% discount before the campaign
> starts.
> 
> We?ve gone to great lengths to optimize Flickr for cost savings
> wherever possible, but the increasing cost of operating this enormous
> community and continuing to invest in its future will require a small
> price increase early in the new year, so this is truly the very best
> time to help everyone upgrade to a Pro membership.
> 
> If you value Flickr finally being independent, built for photographers
> and by photographers, we need your help.
> 
> With gratitude,
> 
> Don MacAskill
> Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Geek
> SmugMug + Flickr
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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